Panda dubs killing of Majhi as fake encounter, calls for bandh

Bhubaneswar: Rejecting a police offer to surrender, Odisha Maobadi Party leader Sabyasachi Panda on Tuesday claimed that his associate Pradip Majhi was killed in a "fake encounter" on March 10 and called for a bandh on March 14.
"It was cold-blooded murder. Pradip was caught by the police and killed," Panda alleged in an audio tape released to the media rejecting DGP Prakash Mishra`s version that the Maoist was killed in an encounter.
To protest the killing, a bandh would be observed on March 14, he said in the tape.
Panda, who could be hiding in jungles in Ganjam, Gajapati, Rayagada or Kandhamal districts, said he was being forced to take to arms and would avenge Pradeep`s killing.